Sonic Un-flea-shed
by Super Sonic Pizza Delivery
Summary: Sonic has fleas, and for some reason, Shadow seems fixated on getting them off. But why? OneShot.


**Sonic Un-flea-shed**

**((This story was written after midnight after a late night on Tumblr. I'll probably edit it later. In any case, enjoy!))**

On a normal day, Sonic ran around Mobius, the planet as "cool and blue as he was," exploring different, interesting places. He would fight Eggman, or spar with Knuckles, or check up on whatever Tails happened to be building that day. Then he'd go into town and talk with people, making sure to make everyone happy. Children would laugh and play with him until he came home at nightfall to see Shadow. He liked his routine; it made him feel alive.

But today he couldn't do anything. He had fleas. And Shadow wouldn't let him leave.

"Shadow, I'm fine. You really don't have to keep me here." Sonic caught himself scratching his arm as he talked, then quickly put it away, hoping Shadow hadn't noticed. He did.

"I will not let you go out there and infect everyone else with your," Shadow wrinkled his nose in disgust, "_fleas_. It's vile."

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "I don't recall asking you. And how did you get in here in the first place?" Shadow lifted a gloved hand and spun a key around on his index finger. Sonic facepalmed. Of course he had given Shadow a key to the house; for some insane reason, he trusted the dark hedgehog. But at the moment, he wished he didn't. "Fine, but this is my house. You can't just keep me here."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Sonic, the fleas you see are only the start of an infestation."

"I don't care. I can stand a few bugs."

Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes. "As we speak, those creatures are procreating on your skin, laying eggs in your fur. And the bugs you can see? They're only five percent of the creatures on your skin."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, so it's more than a few. So what?"

The black hedgehog walked towards him. "It's rather simple, really," he said, a dark grin crossing his face. "You're going to take a flea bath."

Much grabbing, chasing, and scratching later, Shadow had finally managed to take Sonic up to the bathroom. But he was still kicking around.

"Shadow, you are not putting me in that flea bath."

"Stop acting like such a senseless child!"

"You can't make me! You know I hate water, and that stuff smells like Chemical Plant!"

"Maybe because it has deadly chemicals in it."

"Deadly?!"

"Relax, they only kill the bugs."

Sonic pushed Shadow away from him, but scowled as he saw Shadow was blocking the door. "Why are you doing this anyway? Won't you just get them too?"

A smirk crossed the Ultimate Lifeform's face as he stifled a laugh. "Unlike you, I have complete control over Chaos. Nothing kills... _fleas_ like Chaos Blast."

With a sigh, Sonic looked up and down the black hedgehog. Wasn't that kind of overkill? Something about the contempt Shadow had for the creatures told him that he really, really hated the darn things. How exactly would that have happened? The ARK was sterile, and if Shadow had fleas when he had amnesia, well, he would've been a lot easier to beat. Sonic shook his head. It was all irrelevant. All that mattered right now was that he was not going in that bath. No way. No how. He glared at Shadow and put up a defensive stance. He'd put up a fight if he had to- even against Shadow, who was currently rolling his eyes at this behavior.

"Oh please," he said, uncharacteristically sarcastic, and pushed Sonic backwards. The blue hedgehog teetered backwards, off balance, until he hit the rim of the bathtub. Sonic's eyes widened as he felt himself falling into the bath tub, the smelling water stinging against his now red skin. "Ahhh! It burns!" he yelled out, splashing the water around, until Shadow put a hand over his mouth.

"Trust me, Sonic. It'll all be fine when it's over."

The blue hedgehog scoffed and crossed his arms, finally settling down in the water, though he still refused to look at it. "Oh? And how would you know?"

Within moments, Sonic regretting asking. Shadow lifted his eyes from the bath, looking off into nothing. "Didn't you wonder why I couldn't help you when the world cracked apart?"

Sonic noted the growing seriousness in tone and matched it. "Not really. You don't hang around me too much." It was true; the black hedgehog only stuck around for fights, not doing much else with Sonic. At first, he thought it was because of Shadow's work with GUN, but after that ended, he realized that Shadow just wanted to be alone. Sonic could respect that; so much had happened to Shadow with GUN and Maria and amnesia, he could forgive some problems with being social.

"When the world split open," Shadow began, "and Dark Gaia spilled out, I was in Holoska. There isn't much up there except for a small village and some unusually resilient animals. Unfortunately for me, that included the Holoskan flea, which doesn't die from the cold like a normal flea would."

Sonic lifted an eye ridge. "And the Ultimate Lifeform couldn't handle it?" he asked with a smirk.

Said Ultimate Lifeform was not amused. "Let me finish!" he groaned, dunking Sonic's head in the water, meeting his protests with darting glares. As soon as he was done dunking Sonic, who was turning up his lower lip in frustration, Shadow continued. "Anyway, those fleas somehow became stronger under the influence of Dark Gaia," he said, matter of factly. "Nothing would get rid of the cursed things. I stayed in below freezing temperatures for days, did flea baths multiple times a day, practically ripped out my fur from all the scratching. But nothing helped. For a month and a half, I was covered in the infernal things, until the planet finally came back together and Dark Gaia disappeared."

Sonic nodded, remembering his own little... _creature_ problem from back then. He didn't think it wise to mention it. "So what you're saying is-"

"If I had the chance back then to get rid of the infernal pests so easily, I would have done it."

"Well, this has been fun, but I don't need any stinking flea bath. I'm leaving."

"Feel free. I finished you up while we were talking."

Sonic looked down at his fur. Sure enough, the little black pests were immobile, washing away in the water. He looked back up, seeing the claw and bite marks on Shadow's arms. It seemed so silly, now, that he put up such a fight. Shadow was only trying to help him. "Shadow, thank-"

"There's no time for that, Sonic. You dry off while I start cleaning the house, and you join me when you're done."

"Cleaning?"

Shadow grunted in inpatience. "If the fleas are on you, then they must be other places in the house. How else do you get rid of the vermin?"

The black hedgehog walked out the door as Sonic stood out of the tub, grabbing the towel. _He really has been kind to me, _he thought, _and I had no idea what happened to him._ Green eyes twinkled with determination. _Alright, Shadow. I'll help you clean this place. I'll kill every last one of those buggers, if it makes you happy._


End file.
